Raincharm’s Weblog

We now have a deck.
It has been in place for a few years now and it is time to do some maintenance.

The primary focus is on the wood elements. Cleaned and brightened it was time to consider the plastic (trex) decking. So Sunday I got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed. And then hosed it all off. I have to admit it was not hard scrubbing, but I was worn out at the end. Picture is about one quarter clean.

And now my back is teetering on the edge. And we still need to put the finish coat on the wood elements.

I have never read so many limitations on when the work can be done. Over 45 degrees, but not when the wood is hot. 48 hours after being wet and 24 hours before rain is expected. Really?!? In Seattle!

Maybe a little bit tonight and I am going to try to get out of work early tomorrow. Chance of rain on Wednesday.

Stay tuned.

Busy day too. Started by sleeping in until 8. Ahhh.
Then the work began. For Carl it began yesterday. He scrubbed the deck woodwork with a cleaner. I think it took him about 4 hours. This morning we followed up with the brightener. With two of us it took about 3 hours, but that included buying a pump sprayer, taping off the metal and then doing the actual brightening (whatever that is).

Finished in time to head to the Seattle Center for the grand opening of the new KEXP studios. We arrived to a long line and decided to follow plan b. Before we could embark on the new plan we ran into some friends that had arrived with a similar plan a. While we were chatting Sagan, her mother and grandparents showed up.  They were at the Center for Whirlygig. Carl had taken Sagan two days during the week and she wanted more. More chatting and then we worked on figuring out our plan b. It started as the Pacific Science Center but soon morphed into dinner at the Athina Grill followed by a walk to the waterfront and along the waterfront to the stadiums.

As you can see, Rainier was out.

Tonight’s activity is a Sounders game. Hopefully they will win, as the Mariners did earlier. In New York City beating the Yankees with Ashlan in attendance. I forgot to ask whether she wore any Mariner gear.

April 15th.
Most Americans know April 15th as tax day. Our house also knows this as
1) the day after Pete Rose’s birthday
2) the day after the first due date they gave us for Rey, who was eventually born on June 6th
3) Jackie Robinson day!

Carl always tries to attend a baseball game on Jackie Robinson day. Today he has two scheduled, Garfield High School and University of Washington. UW is playing UCLA, attended by Jackie. Carl called the UW a few months ago and suggested they should make this game a Jackie Robinson game. He never heard back, but we looked at the schedule this morning and it is indeed a celebration of Jackie Robinson. Maybe it was already planned, who knows.

As for tax day, that has been delayed until April 18th due to the celebration of Emancipation Day today since April 16th is a Saturday.

The weather in Seattle is supposed to be nice this weekend. A penalty day for those that put off their taxes until the end.

And so it begins.
Opening weekend in Seattle in April.
Unlike some other cities it did not snow, and didn’t even rain. (Of course the weekend is not over yet but no rain is predicted. Friday was in the 70s, yesterday the high 60s, and today the mid 60s. Hard to complain.

Friday was great fun. Carl and I walked downtown, and had to stop to buy sunscreen. (Turns out there was a small tube in my backpack that I missed.)

Our regular stop for refreshments and restrooms.

I look a little worse for wear, but it was a hot walk.

Between posting the above picture on Facebook and texting a few we gathered the usual suspects before the gates opened.

And so did everyone else. The crowd was reported at over 47,000.

Part of the draw was Ken Griffey Jr throwing out the first pitch.

We should see him again in a little over 100 days.

The games are ready to begin.

To be continued.

And we’re off.

We watched parts of the three games yesterday, and Carl watched the Mariners today.

It was a day game, and I was unaware of the outcome until after our Board meeting (6:30 PM). Felix was okay, 6 strikeouts, but not infallible, 5 walks, and neither were the field players – 2 errors – behind him. It’s only the first game, so no worries.

I just got home (9:30) after writing up the minutes from the meeting because the Executive Assistant had an unexpected medical issue to deal with. Maybe at this rate I won’t need to burn a vacation day on Friday for the Mariners home opener.

Sunglasses are a day thing most of the time. I have heard there are more sunglasses per capita sold in Seattle than anywhere else in the country. That might seem odd given our deserved reputation for clouds and rain. Instead I think it has something to do with the sun being low in the sky and closer to the horizon.

Yesterday the sun did burn through the morning clouds and when we left for our evening event the sun was bright and dipping low in the sky. So I put on my sunglasses.

We headed towards the Seattle Center for the Men’s Chorus show. Turns out it was only one of many events at the Center. The most heavily attended appeared to be Elle Goulding. (We did not know who she was, some popular English singer.) There was also an ultimate frisbee game and the normal tourists at the Space Needle, EMP, and the Chihuly Glass museum. The conjunction of events drove the parking lot prices northward, so we headed west to look for a street spot. Found a car vacating a rather small spot, but figured our car was no longer and proceeded to parallel park successfully on the first try.

We trudged up the four block hill to the Center and through the folks arriving at the aforementioned concert. About that time I realized I still had my sunglasses on and my other glasses were in the car. We had time but I did not relish the uphill trudge again. (It was a steep hill, not a mere incline.) So I stayed with the sunglasses.

The show was muted, but not impossible. Bright lights of Broadway and all.  The walk back to the car was just plain dark.

This morning was sunny, so yard work beckoned. Our lawn had not been cut yet and parts were reaching 6 inches. Carl wrangled the push mower out of the garage, and then he and our neighbor agreed I should use her electric mower instead. I finally agreed to give it a try, and I am sure it did a much better job. Believe it or not this is the first time I have used a power mower of any kind.

At one point I thought I had run the charge down and plugged it in. While waiting I battled dandelions and other various weeds. I am not sure anyone will notice my effort, but I know. Turns out I just needed to approach the tall grass a bit at a time, and not try to power through all at once.

I noticed this bit of fungus among us.

I like the way it mimics the grain of the bat.

It’s Saturday and we rose at the same time as Monday through Friday. Coffee in hand we headed to the end of the block and the 67 bus.

This is our first ride on the new business route. The 66 used to head down Roosevelt to Eastlake and downtown. Now it heads to the university light rail station, where you can transfer to get downtown. The university station is at Husky stadium, which was our destination this morning. No light rail needed.

And the 67 was packed, before 7 AM on a Saturday morning. Most heading to the same event. An opportunity to walk the new 520 Bridge before it opens for traffic. Just us and 13,000 others. And that is before the middle of the day event with STEM activities, food trucks and a ribbon cutting.

The crowd.

Are we having fun yet?

Old and new

At the halfway point, before crossing back over.
More new bridge still under construction

Exposed aggregate on the old bridge
6.2 miles later

Bonus
When we crossed back over the Montlake bridge, the UW vs Brown crew race was in its final moments, with UW pulling away.

We continued our walk to a bus stop and rode back to the neighborhood where we had breakfast at the Olympic. We shared some of the pictures from the morning with the family that operates the restaurant and listened to them discuss whatever they were discussing in Greek.

I ate a tremendous amount of breakfast – French toast, english muffin and hash browns and sausage. Oh, and coffee.

Lounging a bit now. Later tonight we are going to see the Men’s Chorus. A few hundred gay men singing Broadway tunes. Should be awesome.